New Victorian Equal Opportunity Legislation: Update

On 1 December 2010 we issued an alert about the new
Victorian Equal Opportunity Act 2010
(Act), the substantive provisions of which come
into force on 1 August this year.

By way of a reminder, some of the key changes introduced by this
new Act include:

introduction of a positive obligation on employers to eliminate
discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation;

simplifying the definitions of discrimination;

revised role for the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human
Rights Commission (Commission);

amendments to the exceptions and exemptions available to allow
what would otherwise be unlawful discrimination;

volunteers to be covered by the sexual harassment provisions in
the Act for the first time;

duty to make reasonable adjustments for employees with an
impairment.

However, a number of the proposed changes have been watered down
by the newly elected Baillieu government.

Certain exemptions and exceptions from unlawful discrimination
have been re-examined. We had reported that the new Act would only
allow religious bodies and schools to discriminate
against people in employment situations if conformity with a
particular requirement was an 'inherent requirement' of the
particular position. This requirement has now been removed.

In relation to exemptions, the new Act also makes clear that
employers can pay under 21s junior rates based on
their age and this will not amount to unlawful discrimination.

One of the main changes to the role of the
Commission in the original Act was to give it the power to
conduct public inquiries and investigations; as a result of the
recent amendments, this power has now been scrapped.